


Codename Firefly

by raven_aorla



Category: Firefly, X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - Fandom, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Kaylee's a mechanic for the airplane Serenity, M/M, Simon can both heal wounds and cause them, but the kids already have powers to begin with, in which Shaw has basically created The Academy, kid maximoff twins, they're hurting us get me out
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-08
Updated: 2014-06-19
Packaged: 2017-11-24 04:24:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/630367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raven_aorla/pseuds/raven_aorla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU fusion. Sebastian Shaw is gathering and training a mutant army, whether said mutants want to be a part of it or not. Key to stopping him are the mutants River "Firefly" Tam, Simon "Sawbones" Tam, and Kaylee "Gearshift" Frye.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Not my characters. Fanfic is purely for fun.

Erik Lensherr was in a cellar in Argentina, torturing a Nazi who may have worked for Schmidt. Even if it turned out Erik's research was flawed and this man never even heard of Schmidt, he was definitely a Nazi, and Erik would not consider such opportunity for vengeance a waste. Impossibly, someone found them, but they did not have any form of metal weaponry. Erik turned his head to see a pair of black polished loafers on the top step. A male voice said, in English, "Mr. Lensherr, I apologize for interrupting a...private moment, but I've spent a lot of time and money trying to locate you to ask for your help. And to offer mine. I'm unarmed; you can check if you like. May I descend?"

"I don't need help," Erik said. The man shackled to the wall pleaded in German and Spanish, the languages mixing incoherently. "He doesn't work for Schmidt - or Shaw, as he's calling himself now - more's the pity," the other man said, absurdly calm as he shut the cellar door behind him and approached. He couldn't be more than twenty-five, wearing a neat but nondescript button-up white shirt and pressed khakis, brown hair parted, hands soft and dextrous. "He has done some pretty terrible things, though, and deserves everything you have done and may yet do him. I won't try to stop you. In fact his pain and fear made the two of you easier to find."

Erik was sufficiently interested to give the unexpected visitor most of his attention, though a small portion of his power was focused on keeping the chains on his prisoner taut. Not strictly necessary but it was important to never let his control weaken. "What is your interest in...Shaw?"

"While I was away at medical school he abducted my sister, killing our parents in the process. Just over a month ago. I presume he's doing similar things to her that he did to you. My mutation doesn't weaponize very well but hers does. My sister and I are both receptive telepaths, able to read minds but unable to project except to other telepaths. She also has superhuman agility and reflexes, and anticipates the next moves of opponents. More to the point, her range to contact those with psychic ability is so much greater than mine that it doesn't seem to have any limit. I know exactly where she and therefore Shaw is. But I have no fighting ability whatsoever. You see how a partnership between us would be useful."

It seemed almost too good to be true, but a lead was a lead and Erik was confident he could easily destroy this little medical student if things went awry. "I tentatively accept. Would you care to meet later or are you going to stand here and watch me work?"

What followed was not so much a smile as a baring of teeth. "If I may lend a small bit of assistance..." He approached the captive, saying in slow but understandable German, "You don't have excuse to plead for mercy, not after what you did to those little girls." The man's eyes widened, and he tried to shy away when the youth ran his fingers along a cut on his cheek. Then asked, "What are you doing?" in a confused tone of voice. "I'm healing all the injuries you currently have. Stay still."

Indeed, Erik could see all the cuts and bruises, the black eye, the split lip, the shattered ankle mend themselves. "No wonder you want to be a doctor," he said in English.

"Yes. My power only works on wounds, not disease or congenital disorders. Still it comes in handy." The young man stepped back. "There, now he'll last for hours longer. Have fun."

Erik couldn't help but laugh. "You're a bit young and soft to be so cold, boy."

"My name is Simon, not 'boy', and trust me if you could see inside this man's head you would understand how I have absolutely no objection to you doing as you like to him." Simon looked around the cellar. "I don't suppose you'd have a chair I can sit on?"

......

Charles Xavier was having a well-earned sleep after his post-graduation festivities. Well, he was, until a piercing, intense telepathic signal yanked him out of dreams.

_THEY'RE HURTING US. GET ME OUT._

Disoriented, he dragged himself upright and put two fingers to his temple. _Hello?_

 _THEY'RE HURTING US. GET ME OUT_.

_Who is they, who is us, where are you?_

_brother my brother need my brother_

_My name is Charles Xavier._

_I am in England. I want to help. But I can't unless I know more._

_sendabeacon beacon beacon glow flicker fly firefly I am firefly in the dark blinking find me_

He could tell the sender of this distress call was female, very far away, and sufficiently frightened and chaotic in the mind that she was likely near some sort of breakdown.

_Whatever you can tell me, please do. I want to help._

_can't do long can't do so far need to use shields need to fight Her only six telepaths I have found all over in all the world and one is Her and you are stronger but I don't know you and you don't ahh GET ME OUT will blink will flicker will glow so you can find me_

Then, in an experience Charles had no analogue for and barely the ability to describe, she did light up. In a sense. A map unrolled in his head, all the world in dull gray whispers, populated with shadowy people flitting across the earth like ghosts, except for six points of light. One in England - himself, the brightest. One in the United States, fragile and weak with youth. One in China, solid and unwavering. One in Argentina, feeble but steady. And two in Australia. One bright and cutting. The other golden and flickering, just as she said she would be, and sending out streams of her radiance towards every point except for the one nearest to her. He had barely grasped the image when it collapsed in on itself, replaced by a psychic scream so primal and wretched it rattled his teeth and made him gasp involuntarily.

Raven was sufficiently alarmed to barge in his room without knocking. "Charles, what's wrong?"

Charles took a deep breath. "I'm afraid we've been called into action."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This lay dormant for ages and ages, but DOFP has given me renewed inspiration. I am afraid I can't guarantee consistent or fast updates, though.

River could tell that this place had once been an insane asylum, more nightmares and confusion in the walls here than her own or the handful of young mutants in adjoining cells could account for. She had a cot, two blankets, a thin pillow, a toilet and a little sink. The Frost woman supervised the girls' shift of showers, the man who called himself Riptide supervised the boys'.

_Can't let us scheme against them, can't let us together alone ever until Frost says we're broken, until the diamond scalpel has us (me) in all little pieces and we (me) call them our new parents and our new lords good little soldiers puppet strings you can't see watch them snake around our wrists and ankles -_

**Go to sleep, Firefly.**

Frost hadn't figured out yet that River could fake sleep-thought by focusing on the minds of those around her instead of generating anything of her own. A telepath who went both ways always left footprints. Shiny weapons glint in the dark. But she slipped through cracks, thin and wavering as she was, as she was becoming ever more so. It was the only upside to being unable to project thoughts to anyone who wasn't a telepath in their own right.

Shaw, Frost, Riptide, and Azazel only used the short nicknames based on their powers, not what their parents gave them, and during Shaw's "lessons" he said it was so they'd stop believing in the illusion that human society would ever accept them. None of them believed it yet, but River knew if they were there long enough they'd believe anything the wardens wanted them to.

Tempest was the closest to gone, mostly because Angel Salvadore had been abandoned and could only show her wings to men who wanted to see the rest of her, too, every part of her except her soul and heart. She got to read magazines and was given better food than the rest of them. Privileges any of them were supposed to earn (good girl, pat on the head, Firefly why aren't you like Tempest here?). But until Frost said Angel was ready to obey orders without question, kill people if told to, then she was still behind heavy locks like the rest. River knew Angel sneaked some chocolate to the twins when she could get away with it, though.

The twins were only seven and their minds were whizzing and chaotic. Pietro (Shaw dubbed him Quicksilver because he had silver hair and was faster than the god Mercury) wanted to be called Peter because the kids at school said Pietro sounded like a Commie name. He literally bounced off the walls and ceiling with his constant approximation of a hamster in a wheel. But he was careful not to run into his sister. Wanda had scarlet hair and manifested new abilities almost every day, without much of a theme yet beyond seeming like witchcraft. They shared a cell because they were so little and because if they were told they had to spend a night without each other Wanda would shriek continuously until she passed out. They missed their mommy and fantasized about a father they'd only heard vague references to, a father who had amazing powers even better than theirs and was coming to save them any moment now.

On their second day Azazel brought them some coloring books and a tattered box of crayons along with a teddy bear they passed back and forth. He'd won an argument with Shaw over the matter, the one speck of defiance that gave River hope. He wasn't entirely sold on Shaw's plan if it involved hurting children, but he didn't think he had other options to survive in society as a bright red mutant with a devil-like tail, even one who could teleport incredible distances. And Shaw's near-invincibility and power to absorb and later expel energy made him a scary potential foe. She had told Simon that Azazel would be the best chance of finding an ally here. She wished she could talk to Simon and that nice man Charles Xavier more but it was a bad idea to create many more memories to lock away from psychic interrogation. 

Sean was in a special soundproofed room that was probably a padded cell before something happened to this building. River wondered about the name he'd been given. Banshees scream and are of Irish origin, yeah, but they're female and their screams mean someone is about to die. Sean's screams meant anyone nearby would have tinnitus for the next few hours and everything glass was going to shatter. Though he didn't scream as much without permission, here, after a few punishments involving gags. 

Hank looked normal but he was blue inside. Not sad blue, but blue blue. Like he was meant to be blue. He didn't seem to know it yet. He was stronger and faster than normal people and had opposable toes that were good for multitasking. He was the oldest of the captives, Simon's age, and had been kidnapped from the CIA. His employers hadn't known he was a mutant but they did know he'd created a machine to amplify a telepath's range. When Shaw stole the machine so Emma could find more "recruits" for him, he probably thought it'd be a good idea to kidnap someone to reassemble it here and fix it when needed. They couldn't hurt Hank without possibly hurting his brain and Frost couldn't literally make someone do something. Torturing a silenced Sean had become the standard threat to get Hank's full cooperation. (Similarly, threats to Wanda kept Pietro from just zooming to freedom.)

Alex had been placed in the cell next to the twins and informed that if he blasted lasers through his chest to attempt escape he would most likely end up killing them. And that after he'd inevitably been subdued they'd have Azazel fetch a random mundane human to painfully execute in front of him. "Havok" might have been a good name for the destruction he could cause, even if Shaw liked to spell it weird for some reason, but it was possibly the worst appellation ever for a young man who spent a lot of time fighting tears with his face buried in a pillow. River wished she could comfort him. As it was she had to keep Simon's rescue mission a secret from everyone else to minimize risk of exposure. 

The last of them, Armando, already called himself "Darwin" before being trapped here. His mutation to survive anything that didn't kill him instantly, body adapting to circumstance, was purely defensive but could still be quite useful to an army. River guessed at some Shaw's plans but she didn't know what Shaw was really thinking most of the time because he had a helmet that blocked her mind reading. He didn't wear it in his sleep or in the shower so she sometimes gleaned little bits at a time without him noticing.

That's how she knew to tell Simon to find a man named Erik Lensherr and bring him along. Nothing like an experienced spy and killer with a personal grudge against their captor. Simon said his mind was as cold and cutting as he'd expected but he had no interest in random violence. And hated people messing with mutant kids.

Her fingertips had started to glow a little in the dark with her efforts to absorb as much about the others all at once. It was probably time to sleep for real. Maybe this time she wouldn't dream of Mom and Dad dying in front of her. Or that dart in her neck she couldn't predict thanks to that horrible helmet.

***

Charles explained the situation to Raven as he packed his bags. "I wouldn't pressure you to come with me, of course, but I always do better with you by my side."

Raven responded by showing him the suitcase she'd already packed for herself while Charles was having a quick shower and popping some paracetamol for the headache the distress signal had given him. "You saved me once. My turn to pay it forward."

Charles paused in stuffing a pair of trousers into the bulging luggage to beam at her. "Miss River Tam - odd name, I wonder if there will be a chance to ask about it - managed to leave a list of instructions along with an apology for likely not being able to get in contact again without being noticed. We're going to a private landing strip about an hour's drive away. The rest of their party will need my help avoiding trouble about trespassing on a billionaire's property when they land their plane."

"So who else are we meeting? People...like us?" Her excitement, though restrained and guilty, shone through, and Charles broadcast reassurance and understanding.

"Her brother, who is a weaker receptive telepath but with astounding healing powers, another man who can manipulate metal, a woman who can 'read' and control machines, and another woman who is not a mutant but a sympathizer. More importantly she works for the CIA and has been following this case ever since one of their agents was abducted too."


End file.
